New York Times best-selling author Brandon Sanderson is widely celebrated for his Mistborn Trilogy and contribution to the final three books of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. In The Emperor's Soul, a Forger named Shai can copy and re-create any item by using magic to rewrite its history. After being condemned to death for attempting to steal the emperor's scepter, Shai is given one final chance. She' ll be allowed to live if she can create a new soul for the emperor, who hovers near death.

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Publisher's Summary

New York Times best-selling author Brandon Sanderson is widely celebrated for his Mistborn Trilogy and contribution to the final three books of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. In The Emperor's Soul, a Forger named Shai can copy and re-create any item by using magic to rewrite its history. After being condemned to death for attempting to steal the emperor's scepter, Shai is given one final chance. She' ll be allowed to live if she can create a new soul for the emperor, who hovers near death.

At three hours and fifty five minutes The Emperor’s Soul is a fairly quick listen, especially since it is written by Brandon Sanderson, but has the depth usually only found in epic novels. It is set in the world of Elantris, Brandon’s first published novel, but The Emperor’s Soul is a completely different story with a new magic system called Forgery. Shai, a Forger, can copy and re-create any item by using magic to rewrite its history. Now she must create a new soul for the emperor or be put to death. Even though most of the action happens toward the end Sanderson’s wit and writing skills never lets the story lag and I thought the narrator, Angela Lin, gave a good performance. This story should please Sanderson fans or anyone else who enjoys this type of genre. I’m a huge Sanderson fan and thoroughly enjoyed this Audio book.

I never trusted the 'novela....' Always seemed like a way to eek out money from fans of a writer, without supplying a fully realized story. Something always sounded like it had to be missing.

Sanderson has changed my mind completely. I've been a huge fan of his work for years now, and chased through his various writings with abandon. I've seen his successes, and had to put down at least one of his less stellar works. I also tend to read series, excessively long series, such as Wheel of Time. I like character development, and completeness. I like the plot to move, and to see what came before, and after, and the motivations behind action. And all of that, can be found in this book. It was an amazing 3ish hours.

Don't connect this with any of his other works. Just start up, knowing it's going to be short, and love the ride.

WALLS CAN'T THINK, BUT THAT DOESN'T KEEP THEM FROM CARING.Four hours was the perfect length for this novella and for Sanderson's genius. If you have not read Sanderson before (and I don't know what rock you have been living under) then this is a great place to start. Sanderson has practically rewritten the fantasy genre. He has set new, higher standards. Fantasy is no longer just Dragons and Sorcerers, it is stories with depth and characters.

AS GOOD AS YOU ARE, SOMEONE ELSE COULD BE BETTERSanderson has not yet replaced Robin Hobb as my favorite fantasy writer, but he is getting close. He can write the long stuff, (The Way of Kings) and he can write the short stuff, like this. What is most amazing, is his abilities to come up with different magic and make them as interesting as the last totally different magic he wrote about. The Way of Kings, Elantris, The Rithmatist, The Emperor's Soul and Mistborn are all different, but great. He is not stuck in one universe. I will have to mention that I was not a fan of Steelheart or Warbreaker, but they were not terrible either.

BOREDOM MADE PEOPLE EASY TO MANIPULATEDid I mention that this guy is a genius?

I loved this book for several reasons. It looks into an artist's soul in a way that is illuminating. It looks into who we could have been if we were someone else. And it's a look at court life that is probably quite accurate if distasteful. It made me wish the world worked the way that the writer described.

As is with many of Sanderson's works, this book leaves you wanting more. I loved this book. It was an out of the box concept and very well written. It takes a lot for me to be draw into a book but this one had my attention from the start and held it.The end did not disappoint. Loved it!

I really enjoyed this book. The environment was completely new to me, yet well explained in the limited time. I felt I was there observing the main character, Shai, as she worked towards her salvation. Her motivations were well-described and although she's not technically a "good guy", I wanted her to succeed anyway. Excellent read and strongly recommend it if you're a fan of fantasy fiction.

What made the experience of listening to The Emperor's Soul the most enjoyable?

The story had a lot of depth to it, despite being fairly short. Sanderson has really matured as an author (comparing to the first Mistborn book), and it's great to read almost anything by him.

What other book might you compare The Emperor's Soul to and why?

The book is pretty unique - but it did remind me a little of the Gentleman Bastard series by Scott Lynch - where they would create various personalities for use in their various schemes. In this story, this is done magically, but it had a slightly similar feel.

Wow!Since finding Brandon Sanderson when he began his work finishing the Wheel of Time series, I have been grabbing as many of his books as I can. With one exception, I have found his books to steadily increase my expectations for the next one. I have always shied away from novellas in the past, because they seemed to be incomplete fragments of stories, that served as lead-ins to a book series. This one absolutely took me by surprise with its freshness, and its ability to completely engage my imagination. While this story truly stands very well on its own, for attentive listeners, there are tie ins to the Elantris book. I won't expound on them here, but will leave the fun of you listening for them untainted.

I had not heard anything narrated by Angela Lin before this, but found her reading to be very well done, even comparable to Kate Reading. She helped make a great story even better.

Brandon Sanderson is one of my favorite authors and this novella thoroughly reminds me why. The plot, the characters, and the world are all masterpiece creations. It does not surprise me that this novella has been nominated for a Hugo. It definitely deserves to win. All of us have an inborn desire to create something great, something magnificent. As I follow the story the main characters helped to re-ignite this desire within me, making me want to create something so amazing it will change the world.

My only regret about this story is that it is a novella; it ends too quickly and I was left wishing that the novella was actually a novel.

Would you consider the audio edition of The Emperor's Soul to be better than the print version?

I think the narrator brought this story to life giving personalities to all of the players.

Any additional comments?

I love Brandon Sanderson, I have both read and listened to his stories and am glad I got this audio version. Even though it was a short story there was and indepth development of the culture, the conflicting mores and of the charaters. I had difficulty turing off my Iphone as I listed to the book. I loved the development of the relationship between Shai and Goatona. The explaination of how she uses her skill through the metamorphasis of her surroundings and using Goatona to test Shai's assessment of her reconstruction of Ashervan's soul reconstruction gave insight into the relationship between Goatona and Ashervan that added to the complexity of the story. Most of all I loved the truth as a manipulation. There were lots of twists in the story and the final twist at the end brough a smile. Thanks to Sanderson for writing this tale.

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